Running on Schedule
by Zemyxaphile
Summary: All the group wanted was to wind down after the test. However, they didn't expect their day to be filled with argument, despair, exasperation, and meteorites! One-shot, true story. No character pairings.


_Running On Schedule_

I put down my pencil and stretched. Looking across from me, I saw that Roxas was staring back, smirking. I smiled in return. We were finally done with the test!

Fifteen minutes later, after much drawing on my test and tired sighs, the teacher told everyone to stop writing and put down their pencils. I could hear the harmonized breath of relief, and I knew everyone was thinking 'Yes! I'm free!' I got up, stretched, and as the teacher grabbed my test booklets, went outside to talk with my friends about it.

"I know they said not to talk about it, but-but-but... those essay questions were hard!" I heard Zexion rant as we walked up to the chatty group. Four hours in an over-air-conditioned library could do that to even the quietest of people. Not that Zexion was silent or anything. Especially when he was hyper.

"I think I did well on the DBQ," I replied. The others looked towards me. "And the second essay was okay. The last one really sucked, though."

"It was the opposite of what I expected it to be," agreed the more calm and collected Roxas. "The multiple choice was easier than the essays. I think it's going to be the multiple choice that saves my score, not my essays."

"I'm brain-dead," I whined. "I wanna go home. I'm soooo glad we took the first two periods off! I think that helped me a lot. Especially the breakfast. And the fact that we didn't bother to study." I didn't bother to talk in complete sentences, or have each sentence relate to the one before it. It took too much brain power.

"I have an idea," Axel intervened, "Let's go to Iron Man as a celebration for completing our AP test!" Axel was constantly trying to make parties at random times of the year. He loved them, but usually they weren't followed through. Such as Zexion's birthday party. And Roxas' birthday party. And his summer party. I, on the other hand, follow through with my parties. I just don't plan any other than my birthday party.

This one we actually tried to follow through with.

"I can take three people who need rides," Marluxia threw out, "my mom won't mind. She'll probably come to see it with us, actually."

"Oh, I need a ride. My mom's working," said Larxene. Marluxia nodded.

"Of course. You always need a ride."

Larxene harrumphed and smiled. She knew it was true.

"I also need a ride," Axel said, raising his hand. Everyone glared at him. He was the one that came up with the idea in the first place! He lowered his hand and grinned at us in awkwardness. His mom chose that moment to drive up next to him, and he busied himself talking to her.

"What about you, Demyx?"

"Me?" I pondered. "I don't know. I already pushed it by asking my mom if I could skip school, but she wants to see Iron Man. I could ask her if she wants to come. By doing that, I can pick up two people."

"That would be great," sighed Roxas, "I need a ride."

"And me too!" piped in Zexion. I blinked. Only me and Marluxia were available for transporting people.

"Are you sure about that?" Axel pried. "We don't want to call off the movie because you couldn't come."

"I'm pretty sure," I tried to convince myself. "But there's always the chance she'll say no. I'll call you guys with the results." Everyone agreed and went off their own direction, while Roxas and I walked to the front of the school. I groaned. "Roxas, I have my bike, and I'm tired. Could you illegally transport my physical self to my... home-ish... place?"

Roxas grinned. "Sure." I nodded in happiness. The ride home was only ten minutes, but after four hours of AP testing—history at that—I wasn't up for a ride on my bike.

We stuffed my bike into the back seat and drove off. "Do you want to be dropped off at Walgreen's, or your house?"

"Walgreen's," I replied, "I don't want my mom to find out you've been driving me when she said not to." Roxas wasn't legally allowed to drive other people below 25 years yet, and my mom was paranoid. I snuck rides off of him anyways.

He pulled into the Walgreen's parking lot and tugged my bike out of the back seat. "I'll see you later," he said. "Call me with the results, okay?"

"Of course!" I waved goodbye and rode off. It wasn't a long ride, since my house was about four houses down from the red white and blue store. Shutting the gate and fishing my helmet out of the cooler conveniently located in the yard (wearing a helmet musses up my mullet), I went inside to ask Mom about the plan.

"Welcome home, Demyx," she said as she got off the phone. "You didn't tell me the test was going to go until after school." I winced. This wasn't starting off good. "It's lucky that my physical therapy was canceled yesterday, or I don't know what I would've done."

"Sorry, I didn't think about it. I thought it would be done by 3:30..."

"Well that's the time it starts, so I would've been screwed anyways."

I decided to wait a while before I asked her about the movie, judging by the mood she was in. So, twenty minutes later, I approached her with the idea.

"No."

My heart sank. "Why?"

"First of all, it's after five, which means it's 9.50 instead of 6.00. We're broke right now—we have only about 80 left in the bank. Second, I promised Saix that I would go to her son's Mock Rock, and that starts at 6:00, the movie 6:45. So I couldn't give you a ride. Lastly, your dad wants to see it, too. He'd be upset if we saw it without him."

A wave of depression hit me, and I realized I'd have to tell all my friends that I couldn't come, which would jeopardize the party, what with leaving two people without rides to the theater. I wanted to make my mom feel bad for what seemed like at the time a pitiful excuse, so I called Axel in front of her.

"Hello? Demyx?"

"Hey Axel," I greeted in a somewhat lifeless-sounding voice, "I was talking with my mom, and she said I couldn't go to the movie." I ignored my mom's interjection of an excuse and listened to Axel.

"Oh..." he sounded disappointed. "Well, I guess call everyone to tell the plan's off. I can't do it... I have to do something." I felt a pang of awkwardness at telling everyone when it was my fault it wasn't going to happen.

"O-okay, I'll call them," I agreed, again ignoring my mom's protests of why _I_ was the one who had to call them. We said goodbye, and I called everyone to relay the news. I called Zexion last.

"That's too bad," Zexion sighed, "and I can't go tomorrow, I have work. But you guys are free to go without me."

"No! It wouldn't be as fun," I protested, then mirrored his sigh. "I guess I'll see you later then."

"Yeah, bye."

I hung up and walked out of the room, Mom still muttering excuses as I made my way to the computer. Then I stopped as it turned to the desktop, and wondered what the hell I was going to do on there. I looked around at the things to do in my room. They all seemed boring. I _really_ wanted to go see the movie.

I was startled by my phone ringing. It was Zexion.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Demyx, it'll be a tight fit in my mom's schedule, but she said she can drop us off early to the movie before she goes to the Mock Rock. It would be a bit before six that we'd get there."

My hope rose, and I went to ask my mom about it... when I found she was on the phone again with our cleaning lady. I hesitated, and asked if I could have five minutes. After much unsureness, Zexion agreed, and I waited impatiently as the minutes ticked by and my mom was still on the phone. Finally, she said goodbye and turned towards me.

"What?"

I relayed the plan to my mom, and she nodded reluctantly. "Let me call your dad and see if he's okay with it." I groaned, knowing she was just stalling for time. I paced as she talked on the phone once again, looking at my phone watch and growling as I realized it had been more than five minutes. Then she nodded towards me, and I hurriedly went off to call Zexion.

"Sorry for taking so long! Mom wouldn't get off the phone. But she said yes," I breathed. I could hear the franticness in Zexion's voice.

"Well, o-okay, be ready _as soon_ as we get there. Mom's a bit upset at me for how long this is taking."

"I'll call everyone while I'm waiting," I suggested. Zexion agreed, and I once again went through the list of my group friends, saying that the movie plan was back on. I couldn't get a hold of Larxene at first, and panicked, but she ended up calling me back and confirming it.

Zexion took longer than I expected, and right as he came, my mom left the house, saying to feed our dog, Pepper. I ran around in a frenzy, finally just setting the food in front of him as I put the chain on his collar outside, and ran towards the car, where Rita looked like she was going to have a heart attack.

"I don't know why I suggested this," she cried, "I'm going to miss my son's Mock Rock, and I don't know how he would take it." Then she changed subjects. "We don't have to pick up Roxas as well, do we?"

"Yes, he needs a ride," I muttered, knowing that this would only aggravate her more. And it did.

"I really need to be there on time! It starts at six, and I don't think I'll make it at this rate!"

"You'll make it," both me and Zexion reassured every time she said this. I called Roxas as we pulled into the freeway exit and told him we'd meet him at the school down the street from his house. Of course, when we got there, he wasn't anywhere to be seen. I called again.

"I should be there soon!" he panted, and I could tell he was running. I felt a pang of guilt, but urged him on faster as it became more apparent that Rita was going to have a seizure if he didn't. "We really have to hurry. Zexion's mom is worrying."

At about 6:35, he got into the car. Rita started muttering that she was going to be late again. And again we reassured her that she wasn't.

That is, until we saw the freeway traffic, and all hope was lost for getting to the movie, let alone the Mock Rock, in time. My heart fell as Rita got off the freeway and started heading home.

"I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have suggested this," she apologized, "but I can't be late for the Mock Rock. I'm part of the yearbook, and so I should be there fifteen minutes before it starts, but at this rate..."

The wave of depression hit me again, after realizing I would once again have to call everyone to say the plan was off. I was silent, only muttering wisps of complaint. Then I was hit with an idea.

"Roxas! Is your dad working?"

Roxas looked at me, then shrugged. "He should be getting off work soon."

"When?"

"About 6:30, maybe."

"Can you call him? Ask him if he can give us a ride?"

Roxas nodded, and called his dad. We heard them talk about something in the driveway, and me and Zexion exchanged confused looks. Then he got off and nodded in our general direction.

"WHOO!" I screamed. Zexion grinned madly. His dad was giving us a ride!

And then, a few seconds later, Roxas' phone rang again. Zexion gulped, and said that that wasn't a good sign. We waited as Roxas talked to his dad again, and hung up.

"He said that even if we left now, we wouldn't get there until after the movie started with all that traffic."

I looked at the clock, which shone 5:45. The movie started in an hour! Regular speed, the trip only took ten minutes. Even if it was bumper-to-bumper traffic, why wouldn't we get there in time?

While my gears cranked in my head and I thought of a way to get to the movies, Rita dropped all three of us off down the street from my house. Being in the middle of town, it was the easiest to get to out of the six of us.

A few seconds later, I gave up in finding another way.

"Call your dad again, and let's just try to get there anyways. I'll call Marluxia and say to leave now, so they have a chance at getting there, too." Roxas unwillingly took out his phone and began to dial, when his phone rang once again. For the third time in about ten minutes, Roxas talked with his dad. When he said bye, he closed the phone.

"My dad said the traffic went down a lot, so we'd be able to make it." Zexion and I squealed in happiness.

"Now you just watch," Zexion said. "A meteorite is going to crash down in front of your dad's car, and he's going to call us saying that he can't get here because of that meteorite." I laughed. But a few minutes later, we saw a car pull up to my driveway, and we all clambered inside.

"Thank you so much!" I praised. "I don't know what we would have done without you!"

On the way to the theater, Zexion and I kept teasing each other about the traffic.

"Agh, it's slow again!"

"It goes all the way past the bridge."

"But look just past it! It's going faster again there!"

"It's just a gap."

"This is probably the tail end of it. I won't be surprised if it's backed up all the way to the movie theater," Roxas intervened.

"Well, Pessimistic-boy, Mr. There's-no-meaning-in-life. It'll clear up!"

"Hey! Mr. Strife was _SO_ leading me to say that! It's not my fault! And it's not like I meant it."

"Yeah, whatever. If it was me that said it, I wouldn't be teased about it for this long. It's because _you_ said it that you're being teased." I grinned.

"That... that's just mean."

When a few minutes went by, the traffic went away, and we arrived at the movie theater. After bidding Roxas' dad farewell and buying tickets, we waited for the others to arrive, talking about our mini adventure we had.

"Feels like I'm in a drama," Zexion laughed. "First we can't go because of Demyx's mom, then we can because of mine, then we can't because of mine, then your dad can drive us, then the traffic gets in the way, then it clears up, a meteorite almost hits, but in the end the world is safe."

I giggled at that, and looked past Zexion to find that Axel was in line to buy tickets, with Larxene, Marluxia, and his mom close behind. Like he said, she was watching the movie with us. I ran up to them.

"You won't believe what we went through to get here!" I told them of our adventure. Marluxia shook his head.

"You guys went through all that trouble? We could've given you a ride."

And everything was silent.

"But you said that you were full," I argued. Axel laughed.

"We could've squished you in there."

I hid my annoyance of this fact by being optimistic. "Well, at least we got here!"

In reality, I wanted to choke someone for not telling me this earlier.

"There's a candy shop across the way. We're going to buy some stuff there," Larxene told us. I nodded happily, all annoyances gone. Candy was across the street, and I wanted some.

--

True story. Happened today, actually. There's no AN at the beginning, because I just wanted to type this and not get distracted by an AN. So yes. I don't own Walgreen's or Iron Man (greatest movie evah), nor did I disclose any information about the AP test. xD Yeah. Don't sue me.

I'm not going to edit this, so if it's weird, whatever. I'm tired after doing so much stuff today, and it's amazing that I even had the willpower to type this.

And I'm NOT working on my long form book report tonight. I'm dead in the mind, so no analyzing books for me. Even though it's due in two days. Monday.

/ramble

Anyways, yeah. We did a ton of stuff today. I'm tired. The end.


End file.
